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The purposes of this study were to investigate the fatigue and self-care behaviors in patients with chronic viral hepatitis during their interferon therapy, to examine the correlates among personal attributes, physical distress, depressive mood, social support, fatigue and self-care behaviors, and to explore the predictable factors that affect their fatigue and self-care behaviors. Totally 106 subjects of purposive samples were collected from a medical center in the Southern Taiwan. In this study, five questionnaires were utilized to collect the data : (1)The personal demographic questionnaires, (2)The Physical Distress Scale, (3)Chinese Version of Beck Depression Inventory, (4)The Social Support Scale, (5)The Self-Care Behaviors Questionnaires. The data were analyzed using the descriptive statistics, item analysis, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson''s correlation, Spearman''s correlation coefficient and stepwise multiple regression analysis.
Findings of this study were as follows: (1)patients perceiving physical distress, depressive mood and fatigue were found to be mild, receiving social support from others was found to be moderate, and practicing self-care behaviors was found to be well. (2)physical distress, depressive mood and self-care behaviors were found to be significant predicators of fatigue. The physical distress, γ-GT level and fatigue were found to be significant predicators of self-care behaviors.
This study suggested strongly that dealing with patients'' fatigue, nurses should consider their physical, mental and behavioral factors. Additionally, for those patients who could manage their physical symptoms and fatigue and practiced perfectly self-care behaviors, nurses should provide them a teaching program regarding symptom management, and encourage them to prevent and manage symptom in time.
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